


Antumbra: Share the Sky

by shcrlockholmcs



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Brief Mentions of Past Sexual Abuse, Canon-Typical Violence, Depression, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Grief/Mourning, Jealous Uchiha Sasuke, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mutual Pining, Post-Chapter 698 (Naruto), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, Suicidal Thoughts, Therapy, Two oblivious pining idiots, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:00:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29306904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shcrlockholmcs/pseuds/shcrlockholmcs
Summary: [Post-698] After their final battle, and in the wake of the war, Sasuke and Naruto struggle to settle into a reality where Sasuke is back in Konoha and Kakashi is now Hokage. Sasuke is mandated to live with Naruto, the only shinobi capable of fighting him if the need arises. And both of them are forced to go to therapy causing things long buried rise to the surface.Together, they fumble through grief, attempts to clear Sasuke's name, and healing. All the while working with Kakashi to make significant changes to Konoha in hopes of creating a place Sasuke would want to call home.With new obstacles between them, somehow Naruto and Sasuke start to find the way towards each other again.
Relationships: Brief Uzumaki Naruto/Hyuuga Hinata, Minor Inuzuka Kiba/Hyuuga Hinata, Past Uchiha Sasuke/Hoozuki Suigetsu, Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto, minor Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino - Relationship
Comments: 33
Kudos: 83
Collections: Extraordinary SNS Fics💕





	1. One Month

**Author's Note:**

> Some quick notes about this fic: the main pairing is SNS. Any other noted pairings will only be briefly mentioned on occasion and not really focused on (save for maybe one scene). Mental health is a major focus in this fic, as Naruto and Sasuke work through their issues, and they will have realistic PTSD, etc as a result of what they have been through. Additionally, yes, Orochimaru was a creep to Sasuke and his sexual abuse of Sasuke will be briefly mentioned but not in detail. There will be some fight scenes, hence the canon typical violence tag. And lastly, there will eventually be smut.
> 
> I just wanted to be clear, so that readers know what they are getting into! Thank you for your support. I plan to post a new chapter every Monday. I hope you enjoy this first chapter, I'm excited to start sharing this story with you! <3
> 
> As for the title, here's a little explanation.  
> Antumbra [noun], the viewing point of an annular eclipse: "An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line with the Earth, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring surrounding the dark disk of the Moon."

The first thing Sasuke noted was how uncomfortable the sunlight streaming through the windows felt on his eyes. Which must have meant he was unconscious for quite some time. Normally his eyes adjusted in less than a few seconds—but this time he felt pain before he was able to blink his vision into clarity.

The second thing he noted was an arm that should have been missing was instead very much so attached to his left side. Except this one felt foreign—it didn’t belong. It was not his flesh.

It was incredibly pale, white as Zetsu was, but Sasuke’s own light skin managed to camouflage it a bit.

He felt anger surge up inside of him, realizing that this thing was attached to him without his permission. No one had bothered to ask if he even wanted a new arm. He felt violated, he felt disrespected, he felt—

“Sasuke? Hey are you okay?”

That familiar voice of sunshine and earnestness broke through his thoughts and brought him back to reality. Suddenly he felt grounded.

Sasuke turned his head towards the hospital bed next to his—and sure enough Naruto was there, sitting up, and looking at him with wide, concerned eyes.

_Oh right, he probably sensed my anger._

Sasuke slowly sat up, wincing, and feeling the soreness in every muscle. The pain he felt shouldn’t surprise him and yet he could not help but feel resentful at still being this sore after, well after however long it had been since he was admitted here.

“I’m fine,” he gritted out, sitting up. He noted that Naruto had a new arm too, but his was wrapped up in white bandages.

“Oh, okay. It’s just…I sensed,” he trailed off. Naruto looked down at his lap, scratching his cheek shyly, feeling a little stupid for being worried in the first place.

“Why is your new arm in bandages?”

Sasuke didn’t let the silence last long for fear it would let too many thoughts and feelings start to bubble to the surface.

“Oh,” Naruto looked at his bandaged hand and flexed it a few times. “Well, as you can see by your arm, uh. Well, my skin is darker than yours and…I didn’t like how it looked. At least this way I don’t have to see the big differences in color, y’know?”

Sasuke hummed his understanding.

But the frustration started to come up again.

“Did they ask you?”

“Ask me what?”

“If you wanted a new arm.”

Naruto blinked. He looked up at the ceiling and then back over at Sasuke.

“No, I guess not. I wasn’t awake.”

“Doesn’t that…make you angry?” Sasuke said through gritted teeth.

And the blonde stared, perplexed.

“What? No! Granny Tsunade found a way to give me my arm back, why would I be angry? I’m grateful!” Naruto shouted, throwing his hands up. “I owe her big time! Without this arm, I mean, god! Could you imagine? How would I do jutsus with one hand? And now that she’s figured it out, she can help anyone else who wants it too!”

Sasuke frowned. And it melted away some of Naruto’s excited resolve. The blonde wondered if he had said something wrong, but before he could ask the door to their hospital room slid open.

“I thought I heard your loud mouth,” Tsunade commented, smirking as she and Sakura stepped in. “I figured it meant Sasuke was finally awake.”

“Granny Tsunade! Sakura!” Naruto greeted them with a large beaming smile and Sasuke swore he felt his heart stop for a second at the sight of it.

The two medic-nin walked over to stand in front of their beds, appraising them with their eyes. Sasuke felt mildly self-conscious under their gazes. Sakura came and sat on left side of Sasuke’s bed, motioning for his arm. His eyes narrowed at her, but he relented, letting her examine it.

Her hands shone green as she scanned his arm up and down. She could not hold back the small smile that graced her lips—so happy to have both her boys back in Konoha—safe.

“How is it feeling, Sasuke?” she asked him, referring to the limb she was examining.

But instead of answering her, Sasuke locked his steely gaze on Tsunade, who simply matched him with one of her own.

“Why did you give me an arm without asking me first?”

“You should be more grateful,” Tsunade retorted. “It was not an easy feat to implant Hashirama’s cells into you two. And yet, I’ve created a perfect prosthetic arm full movement and feeling too. Hashirama’s cells have great regenerative properties, your new arms should pose little to no challenges for you two to grow accustomed to.”

“What if I didn’t _want_ a new arm?”

“What, why wouldn’t you want one?!” Naruto jumped in, looking at Sasuke with those big worried eyes again. They soothed the malice in his own eyes and instead Sasuke decided to look away from everyone and stare straight ahead.

“I’m just not sure it is ethical to make non-life saving medical decisions for someone, when it is entirely plausible to wait for them to regain consciousness and ask for their choice on the matter,” he explained, voice now monotone.

Sakura finished examining Sasuke’s arm, letting it go, and turning towards Tsunade.

“It looks good to me. I think it is acclimating to Sasuke’s body nicely. It is taking a little bit longer, because he doesn’t have the same healing properties that Naruto does, but there shouldn’t be any issues.”

Tsunade nodded and held up her hand to quiet a Naruto who was about to launch into another ramble.

“Sasuke,” she started, sounding just as serious as before but without any of her sternness behind it. Instead, she looked at him with compassion, and Sasuke thought he saw some regret, too. “I’m sorry we went ahead with the procedure without consulting you first. It was an inconsiderate, and selfish, decision on our part.”

“Selfish?”

“You and Naruto are the two strongest shinobi Konoha has to offer,” Tsunade explained. “And our main concern was preserving your power in any way we could.”

“And that’s been the problem from the beginning, hasn’t it? If the Allied Shinobi Forces are meant to endure beyond the war, then why bother worrying about what power you possess within your own village anyway?” Sasuke spat, his anger spiking yet again.

Even Tsunade visibly flinched at that.

“I was acting Hokage when the decision was made. The fault rests on my shoulders, Sasuke. And you are correct. But lucky for you, there’s a new Hokage now. And they’re intent on making a lot of changes,” she said, managing a small, albeit fake, smile.

Sasuke clicked his tongue in response.

An awkward silence stretched out between the four of them. And it felt suffocating to Naruto, especially as he continued to sense the animosity radiating from Sasuke’s body. He clenched his fists in his lap, about ready to burst, when Tsunade cut in again.

“Come on Sakura, we have other patients to see,” she ordered.

Sakura stared up at her helplessly, trying to convey with her eyes how badly she wanted to stay—to finally spend time with Naruto and Sasuke again. To spend time by their sides without a war raging on around them. But Tsunade motioned for her to come and walked out of the room without another word.

She stood, walking halfway to the door, before turning to look at the other two-thirds of Team 7.

“I,” she started, suddenly feeling like the odd one out in the room. This feeling when around Sasuke and Naruto was not new, but without the implications of needing to catch up to them anymore, she wasn’t sure what was causing it. “I’ll see you two later, okay? Please be careful with your new arms. I really don’t want to deal with you two whining if I have to do any procedures, yeah?”

Sakura closed the door behind her, pausing outside their room and resting her head against the wall. She had expected things to be different now—the state of Team 7 had always been in flux from the start. There were multiple times in which things changed so drastically between the three of them she could not fathom another shift.

And of course after the war—after that last fight between Naruto and Sasuke—things would not be the same. Hell, Sasuke had apologized to her on the spot. Things were clearly shifting.

Sakura could not quite put her finger on it, but her role as the odd one out had stronger implications than she had previously realized. She pushed herself off the wall and decided that, as usual, it was going to be best to leave those two to their own devices. She had her own things to worry about now.

~

“I’m sorry you…feel that way,” Naruto said when he sensed Sakura had walked away. “I wouldn’t have tried to push my feelings about my new arm on you, if I knew. I wasn’t thinking.”

Sasuke looked back over at him, eyes soft.

“I’m not angry with you, Naruto.”

“I know. I guess I was sort of hoping…I could cheer you up with my excitement.”

“I know.”

“But your reasons…I understand them. I guess I didn’t stop to think of it that way, but you’re right.”

“They’re not my only reasons.”

Naruto blinked, quirking an eyebrow. “Huh?”

“Just…Nevermind.”

“No way, Sasuke. You know if anyone is gonna understand, it’s gonna be me,” Naruto countered.

The determination on Naruto’s face made Sasuke let out a small chuckle and Naruto’s cheeks flushed pink.

“Hey, are you gonna make fun of me?” he pouted.

“No, just amusing that some things about you never change,” he explained. “Fine, I’ll try.”

“Wait,” Naruto said, leaving Sasuke perplexed, until the blonde started to climb over. Sasuke’s mouth fell open with the intent to protest, but before he could Naruto was sitting on the end of Sasuke’s hospital bed, legs crossed, and staring at him with sparkling eyes. “Okay, go.”

Sasuke took a deep breath. He was not keen on expressing his innermost thoughts or feelings. In fact, he was able to share his most difficult feelings with Naruto only when they were exchanging fists. Now that dynamic between them had shifted—morphed into something new altogether—meaning screaming in the blonde’s face was no longer the ideal tactic for explaining himself.

He spent his entire life focusing solely on hatred. He learned the language of anger early on. It was the only feeling he was proficient in describing. And repressing every other feeling, as it turns out, was not the way to go. Despite the power his eyes possessed, it turned out he had been immensely shortsighted his whole life.

But in telling Naruto he lost, in crying in front of him as they lay side by side, in apologizing to Sakura—he knew that this next phase of his life could not play out like his past. And while the thought of being open about his feelings still made his gut twist into uncomfortable knots, he knew it was the right thing to do. Especially when Naruto was asking him directly and looking at him with those honest eyes.

He’d deal with the way those eyes made him feel later.

“Losing my arm felt like…well, it felt like I deserved it. My arm was the least I could lose, give away, for all that I have done. It was a loss to help atone for my mistakes,” Sasuke explained. “It was never going to be enough, I have much more I need to do, but it was a start. And now, I don’t have that start. Instead I’ve taken more.”

“I get it,” Naruto said, sounding sure of himself.

But Sasuke, in the end, was not surprised to hear that.

_Well, if anyone was going to understand…_

“It meant something,” Naruto continued. “It meant something to me, too. To lose my arm. It meant you were back—it meant…it meant things were different between us, finally. I guess, when I think about it that way, it feels wrong to have this one attached to me now.”

Sasuke was taken aback by that confession, his eyes wide and this time Naruto laughed at him.

“You’re always so surprised when I say things like that, eh, Sasuke?”

“I’m just used to the 12 year old brat who had no emotional intelligence, that’s all,” Sasuke huffed, quickly falling back into step with their usual banter.

_Some things never change. And maybe that’s okay,_ he mused.

~

Naruto rubbed the back of his head with his bandaged hand. It was strange to him that it made complete sense for things to be how they were now, while simultaneously feeling strange. He had spent a lifetime chasing after Sasuke—metaphorically, and then literally, too.

The war, and his final fight with Sasuke, had revealed the intensity of their connection. And the depth of their bond was something Naruto still could not wrap his brain around. It was something that felt right when he heard it, but it defied logic. But Naruto had been told many times before—mostly by Shikamaru—that his desire to bring Sasuke home was stupid and illogical. So maybe he shouldn’t expect things to make perfect sense now.

Here he was, sitting on the end of Sasuke’s hospital bed, as they recovered side by side without malice in the air. It made him smile. The last time he remembered being in a hospital with Sasuke, it ended with them on the roof nearly killing one another—thankfully Kakashi had intervened.

In those moments he remembered shouting horrible, hateful things at his beloved friend.

_Only because next to me you’re embarrassed at how weak you are! Isn’t that right Sasuke?!_

All the while internally rebuking himself for letting those words leave his mouth. In that moment he wanted to shut up, but back then they were a volatile mix that only created explosions.

_Crazy how things change, huh, Sasuke?_

~

The moonlight spilled into their room.

Sasuke turned his head to look out the window—an ominous full moon shone back at him—it felt like it was staring at him. Overwhelmed by the sight he looked away.

It was impossible to see the moon and not immediately get sucked back into memories of the war, Six Paths Yin Power, and how he and Naruto had worked together. There was a sharp pain in his chest as the flashbacks ran through his mind.

Everything was so broken. Then. And now.

Nighttime always brought in the darker side of Sasuke’s thoughts.

“Sasuke, I’ve been thinking.”

Naruto’s voice jolted him into the present moment. This time he was grateful for it.

“I advise you don’t do that too much, you might hurt yourself.”

“Ha, very funny bastard.”

But Sasuke could hear the smile in his voice, shining through the darkness in their hospital room.

“No but really, I have been thinking, and I wanted to say something,” Naruto continued. Then there was rustling in his bed and Sasuke assumed it meant the blonde had sat up and turned to face him.

He sighed and returned the courtesy, sitting up and looking at Naruto.

The room was dark, save for the moonlight, which was surprisingly enough to clearly see Naruto’s face.

“Okay,” Sasuke said, once he was settled, crossed legged and facing him.

“I’ve changed my mind.”

“About?”

“Will you shut up and let me finish,” Naruto laughed. Sasuke huffed. “About the arms, I mean. Well, about agreeing with you about how it feels wrong to have them now.”

Sasuke’s heart sank—he knew he should not have shared those thoughts and feelings with Naruto. He had been right to think the other man would not understand.

“You have to let me explain why before you start looking like that,” the blonde quipped.

“Like what?”

“You know what you’re like—brooding and grumpy. Anyway, I’m going to keep explaining now,” he rambled. “I’ve changed my mind because I think it is time you and I stop thinking we deserve bad things. Especially you, though. You’re always looking for ways to punish yourself or blame yourself or make the suffering last. You don’t really know how to let things go or let yourself be happy.”

“Maybe you let things go too easily,” Sasuke countered.

“This isn’t about me right now.” Naruto ran a shaky hand through his hair. This was difficult for him, Sasuke could tell, and he felt a little guilty for giving him such a hard time as he was being vulnerable. He decided to keep his mouth shut until Naruto was done. “You can…significantly change your life path, change as a person, without having to lose an arm to prove it. There’s nothing wrong with having one arm, but there sure as hell is something wrong with thinking you deserve to lose an arm because you made some mistakes in life.”

Sasuke wanted to laugh— _some_ was an understatement. But he committed to remaining silent until Naruto was ready for his input.

“It hurts me, Sasuke, that you think you deserve pain or hardship just because you made mistakes. And hell—those mistakes weren’t even all your fault. Some of them I wouldn’t even consider mistakes…I mean…Danzo…” he trailed off, his blue eyes going somewhere far away.

There was a long stretch of silence between them, but it was comfortable.

“And then a lot of those other things, well, you were manipulated and—whatever. I’m not here to tell you your own life story,” Naruto laughed, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. “I’m just saying. I think it is really fucked up to wish pain upon yourself, as if that’s what will make up for the bad things you’ve done. When in reality, what makes up for all that stuff, is how you choose to move forward. Choosing to make good choices and to be a better person—that includes…being a better person to yourself.”

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

“That’s it, I’m done,” Naruto sighed.

“You’ve always talked too much.”

“Gee, thanks bastard.”

“Sorry I just—I don’t know how to respond to that,” Sasuke replied.

Naruto was obviously surprised at Sasuke’s willingness to apologize and admit that he was at a loss for words. “Hey, I thought you always had a comeback for everything I say.”

“Can you just—”

_Let me be this new person I’m becoming and not expect me to always be the asshole I was as a kid._

“—I’m trying here, okay? You want a real conversation and it isn’t easy,” he said through gritted teeth. Naruto held his hands up as an apology, but remained quiet, which must have been a huge feat of self-control on his end. “I understand what you’re saying. And I’m…grateful that you feel that way. But…regretfully, those are not things I believe about myself. I won’t hold your change of thought against you, but I need you to understand we are not on the same page.”

And he saw the devastation in Naruto’s eyes—it made his heart clench up so painfully tight he thought he may pass out. He hated that he had been the cause of that exact look on Naruto’s face more times than he could count.

“Not—not yet anyway,” he added in, wishing it were enough to take away the pain. And frustratingly he was right—Naruto’s eyes lit up again with that same foolish hope he always had when it came to Sasuke.

It was infuriating. Sasuke only ever gave Naruto crumbs, but the idiot acted like it was a full on feast every single time.

Sasuke hated himself for it.

He threw himself onto his back, staring up at the ceiling, unable to hold Naruto’s intense gaze any longer. He could feel Naruto’s confusion at the sudden change, but the bed next to his creaked as the blonde laid back down.

The thought spiral came on quickly—they always did ever since he had found out the truth about Itachi’s life. Sasuke’s mind would hook onto one thought and follow it into a downwards spiral of worsening ideation.

This time it started off with the realization that Naruto’s doubtless belief in Sasuke’s inherent goodness made him feel disgusted. Not with Naruto—but with himself. He could not wrap his mind around the idea that there was good within himself. The best he could reason out was he could make good choices while punishing himself for all his previous bad ones and maybe that would be enough to make his existence worthwhile.

He knew it was morbid, but depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation were things far too familiar to Sasuke by now. They had haunted him since childhood—and he would argue that it would be more disturbing if these feelings didn’t plague him after all he had been through.

The spiral went further down—how stupid Naruto was to think that Sasuke deserved good things after all the destruction and pain he caused. And so much of that pain was Naruto’s—how could he possibly want happiness for Sasuke after all he had put him through?

But that was just Naruto’s nature—he saw the light in everyone and what made them worthwhile. If Sasuke were in Naruto’s position, he would want to see him burn and suffer for the pain he caused. That was the difference—that was why Naruto’s belief in Sasuke’s goodness was naïve. 

“Sasuke?” There was a gentle touch on his forearm.

It was Naruto—again—once again grounding him in reality. Could Sasuke ever find the words to tell Naruto how often he did that? To thank him for it? Probably not.

He opened his eyes, Naruto was leaning over him and had his non-bandaged hand resting on Sasuke’s arm. The worry was written all over his face—Naruto was never good at hiding his emotions.

“You were breathing really heavy and clenching your fists so tight they were…well, whiter than normal,” Naruto explained, not moving his hand.

Sasuke realized his hands were still clenched into fists and released them, running his thumbs on the inside of his palms to feel the deep markings left by his nails. His lips parted to let in more air as he noticed his lungs felt empty. He mentally chided himself for adding Naruto to the very short list of people who had seen him have a panic attack.

Itachi. Orochimaru. All the members of Taka. And now Naruto.

He stared up at Naruto with emotionless eyes—he knew how to mask what he was actually feeling by now. And although Naruto was the one who always saw through it, or pushed through it, he did not feel like talking about this right now.

When the blank face did not will Naruto away, he narrowed his eyes into a menacing glare. The Sasuke Uchiha glare was feared by all and he knew that even Naruto felt uneasy under its weight.

“Okay, okay, geez,” Naruto retracted his hand and climbed back into his bed. “Sorry for caring.”

Sasuke refused to acknowledge what hearing those words made him feel.

_Not right now._

He let Naruto sit in the silence of no response. He knew the blonde would forgive him for this behavior and he hated himself for exploiting it. But he did it anyway.

The silence stretched on and on as Sasuke thought about the war, their final fight, and how things felt different. The adrenaline at the end of their fight had him on a high—he had smiled, felt happy—hopeful even. Where had those feelings gone between then and now?

And then it dawned on him—

“Naruto, how long…were we asleep?”

“Huh?”

“After our fight, they sedated us to treat us. I only woke up today—how long has it been? A day? Two?”

Naruto started fidgeting. Sasuke grew increasingly annoyed.

“You _know_ what I’m asking and you clearly know more than I do, so spit it out, idiot.”

“You’re not gonna like the answer,” Naruto groaned.

“Naruto, I don’t like most things.”

“You’re reaaally not gonna like _this_ …”

“Naruto.”

“Okay so…yeah, they sedated us to operate on us and give us time to heal. But, y’know, I heal faster. So, I’ve been awake for awhile actually. And, uh, well that’s not the _only_ reason I’ve been awake longer,” Naruto rambled.

“Go on.”

“Well, um, you’re still labeled as a missing-nin and criminal, after all. So, it was decided to keep you sedated for…some extra time in case you were a flight risk. But I finally yelled about it enough, I think, that they decided to remove the medically induced coma today.”

Sasuke was surprised by how unsurprising he found this information.

“How long has it been?” he asked, monotone.

“Okay so, we poetically blew each other’s arms off…a month ago,” Naruto mumbled.

“A month?!” Sasuke shot up, shouting without meaning to. “Goddamn it Naruto, why didn’t you mention all of this sooner? No wonder I feel so—so—”

_Confused. Vulnerable. Lost. Helpless._

“I’m sorry, I thought…well, I was sure that when Granny Tsunade was here earlier she was going to explain everything, but that did not go how I thought _at all_.”

“Forget it, I’m going to sleep,” Sasuke growled, laying back down and rolling on his side so that his back was to Naruto. He brought the covers all the way up to his nose, hoping this position would let him feel guarded and hidden.

There was not enough energy in him at this point to fully process what Naruto had just shared. He felt betrayed—not by Naruto, but by Konoha once again—and the exhaustion from that singular emotion wiped him out. Sasuke was asleep within minutes.

~

Naruto slept for an hour at most after that last exchange with Sasuke. He suddenly felt soul-crushing guilt for not being upfront with Sasuke about what Konoha had decided and how much time had passed. Instead he had let his excitement about Sasuke finally being awake overrule his moral compass.

Before he knew it, the morning sun invaded the entirety of their room and any chance he had of more sleep was gone. He turned over on his side to look at Sasuke’s bed—his back was still to him. Naruto knew Sasuke never moved much in his sleep or at least he didn’t when they were young genins going on missions together.

He could tell Sasuke was still asleep and not pretending. Shinobi senses heightened awareness of minute details like that. It would be dangerous to walk up on someone you thought was asleep and get attacked instead.

But he knew when Sasuke did wake up he would be pissed off. Rightfully so. Naruto had an inkling the subject of Sasuke’s anger would be Konoha and the Hokage, but he knew he deserved some of that rage too. He had an entire day to let Sasuke know what had happened and decided to bask in their comfortable companionship instead—too afraid to ruin the mood.

It was selfish. And now he was worried that he had ruined the fragile trust that existed between him and Sasuke. Naruto knew worrying about these things without having a proper conversation with his friend was useless. He should not be depressed before anything was certain.

He had Sasuke back.

No—wait. That wasn’t right.

Konoha had Sasuke back.

No, that wasn’t right either.

Sasuke was back in Konoha. Back home. Finally.

But he had Sasuke back—that was the nagging thought that kept coming to the surface. He could pick at that thread, see what unraveled, but he decided to mope instead. Naruto got overwhelmed by the fear that instead of having Sasuke back his stupid choice to keep secrets from him would drive him away yet again.

Just as Naruto entered full fledge mope mode, Sasuke stirred in his bed. Though he did not move to sit up, Naruto knew he was awake now. There was a definite awkwardness that descended upon the two of them now that Sasuke was conscious.

Naruto sat up in bed—aching to start a conversation—but before he could the door to their room slid open. Sakura walked in wearing a large smile, holding a bunch of clothes in her hands that clearly belonged to the two boys—Naruto’s orange jumpsuit stuck out like a sore thumb. However, she instantly registered the atmosphere in the room and her smile dropped. She shared a look with Naruto. He winced.

After years of working together without Sasuke around, Naruto and Sakura could communicate pretty well without speaking out loud. It was times like these that Naruto was grateful for that development in their friendship.

“Morning sunshines,” she said, voice dripping with sarcasm. Sasuke still had not turned around or sat up. “I brought you two clothes. Uh Sasuke, Suigetsu was able to provide an extra set of your clothes. Be thankful, because otherwise I was gonna make you wear one of Naruto’s jumpsuits.”

That got Sasuke to sit up in bed.

“Suigetsu?” he asked, shamelessly curious.

“You can take that up with the Hokage. Which is why you two are getting dressed,” she explained, dropping their respective outfits at the end of their beds. “You’re outta here.”

“Only one short month later. But what would I know,” Sasuke grumbled, getting out of bed and stretching.

Sakura looked at Naruto, eyes wide. “Oh that explains the _mood_ then.”

Sasuke shot her a death glare, but she seemed unaffected. When that didn’t work, he started pulling his shirt off to get dressed. She got the message that time.

“Alright, I’ll wait outside. I’m your escort to the Hokage’s office.”

She scurried out and shut the door behind her. Now just the two of them, Naruto found himself staring at Sasuke’s shirtless body. He was as perfect as ever—despite the new arm, the scars on his body that Naruto did not remember seeing before.

_When and how did he get those? What did he get up to when he was away?__

His body was toned—strong—and sleek. Sasuke’s collarbones alone were torture to look at.

“Something wrong?” Sasuke snapped, pulling on his high collared grey shirt, leaving the zipper open down past his collarbones.

Naruto realized he had been caught gawking—he wasn’t even sure why he was staring, it was just Sasuke—but his face went red anyway.

“Nothing, bastard, geez,” he stuttered. Naruto jumped out of bed and grabbed his clothes. “I’m changing in the bathroom.” He had to regain his dignity somehow. And hopefully find a way to erase the image of a shirtless Sasuke from his mind.

~

“Who is the new Hokage anyway? That’s something else that hasn’t been shared with me,” Sasuke asked, breaking the long silence that hung between the three original members of Team 7 as they walked through the halls of the Hokage tower.

Naruto slumped over, Sasuke’s words knocking any happiness that was left out of him. Sakura stepped in.

“The Hokage wanted you to see for yourself. And besides, I think it will be way more fun to see your reaction this way,” she teased as they stopped right outside the Hokage’s office.

The door swung open and Shikamaru stood there, looking completely unamused to see the three of them huddled together in front of him.

“Shikamaru’s—”

“No, I’m not the Hokage,” he sighed. “What a bother that would be. Not that being the Hokage’s advisor is much better.”

He stepped to the side to let the three of them in. Sasuke would not admit it out loud, but he was excited to have his curiosity of who the new Hokage was satiated.

And when he saw an all too familiar silver haired man smiling at him from under mask sitting in the Hokage’s chair he—well, he was not sure what he felt. Kakashi did not strike him as the Hokage type—considering his knowledge of the man included chronic tardiness and a disdain for tedious work. But things could change and he had been gone for a long time.

Jumping to conclusions would not be helpful.

“Surprise!” Naruto shouted, jumping up and down next to Sasuke a few times. “Kakashi-sensei is Hokage now—isn’t that cool?”

The blonde was grinning from ear to ear—it was hard to keep a blank face under the light of that smile. Sasuke managed, but it was a struggle.

“Well, so much for a fun reaction,” Sakura sighed.

“I told you we wouldn’t see a single expression cross his face,” Kakashi countered, still smiling from under his mask. “Alright Sakura…”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Official business, none of _my_ business. I’m going,” she grumbled, turning and leaving the office. Shikamaru shut the door behind her, standing between Naruto and Sasuke and the exit. Sasuke took note of this—on some level he was still being perceived as a threat, which he honestly did not blame them for.

“What Sasuke? No congratulations for your old sensei?” Kakashi mock pouted.

Sasuke rolled his eyes—he didn’t feel like games. He wanted information.

“Congratulations,” he offered. “Can we talk about whatever you want to talk about now? So I can get to asking my questions?”

“Well, patience is not something you learned in your years away,” Kakashi replied.

Sasuke bristled. But he also noticed the nervousness radiating off of Naruto who was standing next to him. The blonde was practically sweating. He decided being a little bit nicer might be worth a shot if it made Naruto any less anxious.

He sucked in a deep breath and tried again. “I just want to know…what my life looks like now.”

“That’s something everyone is feeling right now, Sasuke,” Kakashi answered. “You’ve been out for a month, but the rest of the shinobi world is still recovering from the war. And Konoha never recovered from Pain’s attack. The war substantially hindered our progress in rebuilding and becoming stable. We’re just now finishing up our final housing projects so that we eliminate the homelessness problem.”

Sasuke understood why Kakashi was telling him all of this, but he found it difficult to care. Why should he care about a village that had done nothing but cause him pain and suffering? A village that let him—and Naruto, for that matter—grow up as orphans—hated and alone. And a village that pushed his older brother, who was only a teenager at the time, to do unspeakable things under the guise of no other option. Why should he give a damn?

Kakashi seemed to read his mind.

“Maybe someday you’ll care, because you’ll realize that not everyone in this village is to blame for everything that happened. But in the meantime, you should know the majority of the village is weary of you being back,” he explained. “And I wish that weren’t the case, because your assistance helped us win the war and save the world. Unfortunately, most people are calling for a formal trial.”

“A trial?” Naruto yelled, to Sasuke’s surprise. He had expected worse—he had expected being thrown into jail the second he stepped foot on Konoha soil again.

Kakashi sighed. “Yes. But don’t worry, it is being put off. And, if I can help it, dismissed entirely. Right now Konoha has much more important things to focus on than a trail of an ex-missing nin who allied with us and helped us win the war. And whose primary crime was killing Danzo, a man who arguably deserved it anyway. But the key issue is…”

“No one knows the truth,” Shikamaru finished.

“And for now it has to stay that way,” Kakashi continued. “Because we have to find sufficient evidence to prove it. It is next to impossible to change the public’s perception of what has been official history for decades.”

“That’s so stupid,” Naruto interjected. “There should be plenty of evidence around already!”

“Not when the Third Hokage and Elders worked diligently to cover it up, Naruto,” Kakashi sighed. “My point is, I hope to avoid a trail by gathering the evidence necessary to explain Sasuke’s actions and clear his name. He probably won’t get off completely free, but I’ll do as much as I can.”

“If there’s no trial in the foreseeable future, what am I supposed to do until then?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to throw you in a prison cell,” Kakashi chuckled. “You’re actually going to be under protective custody though. You’ll be assigned to live with someone who can keep an eye on you. And when you’re not around them, you can be sure that ANBU are waiting in the wings.”

“Why do I have to live with this person if ANBU is going to be watching me anyway?” Sasuke grumbled. He had never shared a permanent living space with another person—well not since he was a child anyway. And traveling in close quarters with Taka had grated his nerves almost to their limit.

“Well for one, you don’t have a living space of your own. The Uchiha district was leveled by Pain and nothing inhabitable remains at this point,” Kakashi countered. “And secondly, I don’t have enough ANBU to follow you around endlessly. Besides, there’s really only one person who could stand a chance against you if necessary.”

The implication of Kakashi’s comment dawned on him a mere two seconds before Naruto caught on.

“Wait! Sasuke is going to be living with me?!”

_Why does…he sound excited?_

Sasuke turned to stare at Naruto, blinking. The blonde was smiling, vibrating with the excitement that rolled off him. What about living with Sasuke could be seen as exciting? Sasuke knew himself—he knew he was cold, closed off, and irritable.

“Yes, Naruto. Seeing as you’re the only one who is an equal match for Sasuke’s power—or perhaps the only one who can beat him—it only makes sense to have you be the one stuck with babysitting him.” Sasuke could tell Kakashi was smirking under his mask—the bastard was enjoying this.

“I’m not a child who needs to be observed every waking hour,” Sasuke snapped.

“Naruto is not obligated to stay at your side constantly. He is still an active shinobi, after all, and will be assigned missions if necessary. But the public will rest easier knowing their village hero is the one watching over the war criminal they feel uneasy about.” Kakashi ran a hand over his face—he was making all of this seem easy, but Sasuke could tell a lot of fighting got him to these compromises. He felt a small pang of gratitude towards his old sensei.

“Fine,” Sasuke conceded. “I’d like some of my other questions answered now.”

Kakashi held his hands out, palms facing upwards. “Ask away.”

“Where are Suigestu, Karin, and Jūgo?”

“Somewhere in Konoha. They’ve been set up with an apartment together. I managed to get them cleared of any suspicion or charges. They’re free to go, but they all decided they wanted to stay.”

Sasuke was shocked, but he kept it inside.

_Why would any of them want to stay here? Especially knowing what I know._

He tucked those curiosities away for later—for when he could talk to them face to face.

“Orochimaru? Kabuto?”

“Securely locked away in prison, underground, and a safe distance away from the city,” Kakashi replied.

Sasuke did not bother to hide the relief he felt hearing that answer. Some of his tense muscles loosened. A temporary truce with Orochimaru did not undo the years of—well it did not undo the years of everything else that had happened between him and the older man. He was grateful to Konoha, for once, and their decision to lock him away.

He felt Naruto take notice of the release in tension in his body at hearing of Orochimaru’s imprisonment. And then Naruto’s hand was on his shoulder.

“Maybe that’s enough for today,” the blonde suggested, his voice uncharacteristically soft.

Sasuke instantaneously wanted to argue—not for any real reason, other than not wanting to appear weak—but he could not ignore the tiredness in his bones. The reality of this conversation was exhausting—the reality of his future was daunting.

In the end, he relented and nodded at Naruto’s suggestion.

“I’ll see you two again tomorrow, then,” Kakashi said. “I’ll have more information to share. And you can think of more questions to ask, Sasuke.”

Sasuke did not understand why Kakashi beamed at him from under that mask of his—not after everything they had been through, the times Sasuke tried to kill him—but he figured it was better to have the new Hokage as an ally. So he didn’t question it further. Not now, anyway.

He felt detached from his body as Naruto steered him out the office door. There were once again too many emotions descending upon him all at once to process.


	2. Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke quickly realizes that moving in with Naruto will inevitably cause him pain. And their follow-up meeting with Kakashi brings to light shocking information.

Naruto led Sasuke through the new streets of a freshly rebuilt Konoha. He knew that Sasuke would recognize next to nothing, so he took the lead. Surprisingly Sasuke let him without any words of protest. They walked in silence—which was excruciating for Naruto—but he had no idea what to say after their conversation with Kakashi. Or their conversation the night before.

Finally they came upon a large building that was full of apartments, and it was clearly nicer than the one Naruto used to live in. In fact, this general area of Konoha seemed to be a little upscale. Before Sasuke could even mention it, Naruto was blushing from embarrassment due to the comments he knew were coming.

“You become a village hero and suddenly they give you nice things, hm?” Sasuke asked, his voice dripping with bitterness. Naruto didn’t understand why it mattered—it had felt nice to be given a better place to live.

“Uh—yeah, something like that,” Naruto chuckled, they climbed the stairs for a few flights, and finally exited onto the sixth floor. He stopped in front of a door that had the number ‘698’ on the front and smiled shyly at Sasuke. “Well, this one’s mine—ours, now, I guess.”

He fumbled with his keys, suddenly extremely self-conscious under Sasuke’s gaze and acutely aware that more snarky remarks were coming. They stepped inside. Sasuke hummed as he appraised the place.

Naruto knew what he was thinking. His face got even warmer than he thought it could.

“Y-yeah, I know…it is bigger than my last place. Which is, uh, you know, that’s nice. I’m not a kid anymore. So...this is the living room,” Naruto gestured around the room they were standing in.

He crossed the room to the other side where the kitchen was. “This…well obviously this is a kitchen. But…with the war and all…I’m pretty sure there are no groceries. And if there are, they’ve probably grown scary stuff on them.”

There was a long hallway to the left of the kitchen.

Sasuke was still standing in the middle of the living room, hands clasped behind his back, eerily quiet.

“U-um, so down the hall….the door on the right is the bathroom…and the door across from it is the bedroom,” Naruto mumbled, looking down at his feet.

“A hallway and everything,” Sasuke said. “To think you used to be an evil Jinchūriki orphan who only deserved to live in a run down apartment with everything crammed into one room.”

“You know Sasuke,” Naruto replied, starting to get angry with the other man for his snide comments. “Maybe you could try being happy for me. Since, oh I don’t know, I like this place and I’m glad I have it.”

“I just think its shitty you had to single-handedly defeat Pain in order to deserve something like this.”

“I don’t even understand what you’re trying to say right now, Sasuke.”

“That’s sort of my point.”

Naruto threw his hands up in the air. “Can you stop being so cryptic for once in your life and just say exactly what you mean?!”

“I’m just waiting for you to realize that Konoha treated you like scum as a child, instead of pretending they didn’t just because they treat you kindly now,” Sasuke snapped.

His words stung. Naruto knew there was truth to them, but that was something he did not want to confront. Something he had convinced himself he had confronted already—back when Killer B was training him and he had to encounter his darker self under the waterfall.

He knew that was a band-aid fix for a much larger wound.

But then there was the war, Sasuke, and everything else after. Who had the time to dig up those feelings? And why did they matter now anyway? The village loved him, he earned their respect, and he was happy that people asked for his autograph when they saw him instead of running away.

“I just don’t get why it matters if I’m happy now,” Naruto grumbled. The news of Sasuke living with him had been exciting, but now the wind was taken completely out of his sails.

He could have guessed things would go this way—Sasuke had been in a sour mood since last night. And it wasn’t like Naruto blamed him, but he wished things could be different.

“It’s a nice place,” Sasuke said.

And even though it looked like it physically pained him to say it, hearing Sasuke mutter those words cheered Naruto up.

“Really?!”

“Don’t push it.”

“Okay,” Naruto whined.

The blonde’s stomach growled before the silence could stretch throughout the room. He flushed and turned around to open some of the cupboards—only to find a few cups of instant ramen. Naruto knew that was not an option Sasuke would be thrilled about.

“Uhhh, I definitely need to go grocery shopping.” He felt unreasonably sheepish—it’s not like Sasuke would be expecting a fully stocked kitchen after they had both spent a month in the hospital. And before that—well, Naruto had not been home in a long time.

Sasuke knew that.

_Right?_

Naruto felt himself shrinking under his self-imposed expectations. And it dawned on him that he never had a guest over before—not in his tiny apartment and not at this nicer one.

Even scarier a thought was that Sasuke was going to be _living_ here.

He knew nothing about being a host for someone coming over for dinner, let alone someone living with him for the known future. Unreasonable anxiety bubbled up in his chest.

“We can have the stupid instant ramen,” Sasuke sighed, coming to stand on the other side of the small counter that divided the kitchen from the main room.

Naruto turned to face him, scratching his whiskered cheek with an index finger. “Uhhh, that’s good, seeing as that it is our only option.”

“Delicious.”

Sasuke sounded annoyed, but the blonde was pleasantly surprised to see a small smile on his face.

_What a relief._

He desperately wanted some of the tension from the last two days to melt away and it finally seemed like Naruto was getting his wish.

But of course the peace could never last too long.

The door to Naruto’s apartment swung open and slammed against the wall with a clang. Naruto had been too busy internally celebrating Sasuke’s smile to hear the intruder coming. And apparently Sasuke had been distracted too, because he looked just as alarmed.

Naruto knew that look—it was the one that said Sasuke would have thrown a kunai if he had one on him.

“What’s up boys!” Ino shouted, her arms full of bags and a giant grin on her face. “I come bearing food and other important items!”

She kicked the door shut behind her, making herself at home without hesitation.

“Uh—I-ino, I didn’t know you were coming over,” Naruto laughed.

Naruto recovered from the shock and found himself grinning. He had not seen Ino—or anyone really—in what felt like forever. Tsunade had a _very strict_ ‘no visitors’ rule due to the dozens of adoring fans— _her words, not his—_ that wanted to visit Naruto after the war.

“Well no duh you didn’t know,” she laughed, depositing the bag of food on the counter. “I’m here because Sakura is working overtime at the hospital. They’re still treating a lot of critical condition patients from the war. She swears it is getting better, but she sleeps on the couch in Tsunade’s office.”

Hearing that broke Naruto’s heart—for Sakura, for the wounded, the loved ones of the wounded.

All of that pain and death and peace still wasn’t a guarantee. Everything was uncertain.

Even things between him and Sasuke were uncertain—he’d hoped that at least that part was figured out by now.

“Here Sasuke,” Ino said, shoving a bag full of belongings his way. Notably his sword was sticking out from it. “Sakura gave these to me. Said she got ‘em from some guy named Suigetsu.”

“Thanks.” Sasuke took the bag, voice and expression flat.

Ino placed her hands on her hips, looking around, assessing the situation. She gave Sasuke a long, hard look that made Naruto’s stomach clench with unease.

“Its so good to have you back,” Ino finally said, flinging her arms around Sasuke’s neck in an enthusiastic hug.

Sasuke remained stiff, his bag of possessions keeping some room between his body and hers. She let go, giggling at the unamused look on his face, fully aware of what she had done. Naruto couldn’t help but laugh too.

“See Sasuke? Some people are happy to have you around,” he teased.

“Ha.”

“Anyway, I’m out of here. I still have to go pick up food for Sakura. If I didn’t feed her, she would have wasted away weeks ago,” she grumbled. “And before you ask—yes Naruto, it is ramen from Ichiraku’s. Your favorite.”

Naruto leapt at her, pulling her into a tight hug. “Don’t tell the others, but you’re my favorite!”

~

Sasuke was unsure about this arrangement.

There was an apprehension he could not place.

This would not be his first time sharing close quarters with someone. As a young genin he had shared a lot of small spaces with Team 7. And then there were Orochimaru’s various eerie hideouts. Lastly, months of traveling alongside Taka through every weather condition a person could imagine—countless nights of reluctantly huddling together for warmth.

And yet now, out of all the questionable situations he had been in, he felt apprehensive.

If stopped long enough to think about it—he could easily pinpoint the reason, but that was a detail he was trying to ignore. The nature of his feelings for Naruto would have to wait indefinitely. For now, and the foreseeable future ahead of him, he would have to live with the inconvenience.

Arguably the worst part of it all was that he had felt unbridled excitement at the thought of living with Naruto.

_How embarrassingly telling._

They ate dinner in silence. The quietness between them felt wrong, but Sasuke reminded himself that the last time they had shared domestic moments like this they were twelve.

Back then Naruto was incapable of being quiet for more than mere seconds.

But now the blonde seemed content to sit peacefully without forced conversation. Another startling reminder of how much time had passed—how different they had both become while apart.

_And yet no one knows me better than you. And no one understands you better than me._

As they finished eating, Sasuke let his gaze linger on Naruto’s face. He was staring pensively down at his empty ramen bowl and Sasuke wondered how similar their thoughts were at the moment.

“Alright well! I’m going to take a shower,” Naruto announced, leaping to his feet, cleaning up their mess on his way towards the bathroom. It was so abrupt Sasuke just stared at the bathroom door as it closed.

The apartment soon filled with the humming noise of running water. Sasuke sighed.

He rummaged through his bag of meager belongings, swiftly locating his single pair of pajama pants—if they could even be called that. When traveling with Taka he slept mostly in his clothes, not bothering to change outfits when living an entire life outdoors.

All the clothes in the bag were clean—he wasn’t sure who was responsible, Suigetsu, Sakura, or Ino—but he was grateful. He slipped out of his clothes and into the dark blue pants which provided immediate comfort. They were soft and warm—a much needed improvement from the hospital pajamas he slept for the last month.

Sasuke rustled through the bag again, disgruntled to find there was no sleep shirt.

_Did Suigetsu let Karin steal it? I bet he would._

The water shut off and Naruto stepped out—clad only in a white towel around his waist and dripping wet. Concerns about his own sleepwear vanished from Sasuke’s mind. There was a small comfort in knowing Naruto’s bathing rituals had not changed since they were kids. As genin he always ran around in just a towel, without a care in the world.

But his body—and Sasuke’s blatant awareness of his attraction towards that body—had changed.

Naruto did the world a disservice by hiding his body underneath baggy clothes.

Sasuke was well acquainted with Naruto’s strong muscles thanks to the many fights that led to ripped clothing and close physical proximity. In fact, some of Sasuke’s realizations about Naruto’s inherent attractiveness had happened at the most inopportune mid-battle moments.

He shamelessly stared at Naruto now.

Mostly because he did not want to let on that this affected him in any way.

His eyes honed in on the chiseled shape of Naruto’s abs—his biceps—the divots of his hips where the water trickled down and disappeared beneath the towel.

“Uh—Sasuke, do you need a shirt?” Naruto asked, his face red, but Sasuke chalked it up to the steam from the shower.

“Yeah, I think Karin stole mine,” he replied, focusing on keeping his voice level and unaffected.

Naruto laughed. “Be right back.”

He came back dressed in a matching pajama set with anthropomorphized ramen bowls and chopsticks all over them. Sasuke got a shirt thrown in his face—he groaned when he saw that it was a white shirt with the Uzumaki symbol on the front.

“Really?”

“Yes really! You don’t like it?” Naruto pouted.

“I guess it could be worse,” Sasuke replied, gesturing to what Naruto was wearing.

“Hey!”

Sasuke snorted, pulling the shirt on without further complaint. “So where should I…”

The rest of the question hung in the air. Naruto rubbed the back of his head, awkwardly shifting from foot to foot, and Sasuke knew what he was going to suggest.

“Well, my bed is big enough for two people,” he offered.

“Oh, is it now? And how exactly do you know that?” Sasuke countered with a smirk.

“Hey—its none of your business how I know that!”

Sasuke let it drop, despite a burning desire to know if anyone had ever been in Naruto’s bed before.

“Anyway—so if you wanted,” the blonde offered up again.

“Absolutely not.”

“Huh? Why not? We used to share a bed all the time on missions—”

“We’re not children anymore, Naruto.”

“I don’t mind, really—”

“I do.”

Naruto grumbled, but seemingly gave up and walked over to the futon that was currently in the couch position. “You can sleep here then—”

“Just leave it as is. I don’t need it folded down,” Sasuke said, holding up a hand to stop Naruto from laying it out flat.

“You sure? It is more comfortable—”

“I’ve spent the majority of the last few years sleeping on the cold hard ground, I promise you this will feel fine,” he reassured.

Naruto left the room and came back with a pillow and fluffy blanket. “At least take these.”

Sasuke chuckled. “Fine, you win this round.”

Once he settled into his makeshift bed, Sasuke found that he was even more comfortable than anticipated. His brain wanted to focus on an anxious thought—namely how living with Naruto was setting himself up for heartache—but sleep claimed him first.

~

They arrived at the Hokage’s office early the next morning per Kakashi’s request. Shikamaru led them into an adjacent room with a circular table they could all sit at—Kakashi and Tsunade already taking up two of the five chairs.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, wondering why Tsunade was present, but took his seat between Naruto and Shikamaru without questioning it aloud. He deferred to trusting Kakashi’s judgment.

“I didn’t know you were going to be here Granny!” Naruto exclaimed, the happiness washing off him in waves. Sasuke knew the two had a special relationship—he knew that she had bet on him when other people refused—and he supposed he owed her some kindness for that.

“I didn’t know either,” she grumbled, casting an annoyed look at Kakashi. “Until much too early this morning.”

Kakashi chuckled nervously.

“Well, your expertise as Fifth Hokage and a medical ninja are appreciated for this conversation,” he explained.

“Can we just start this already?” Shikamaru sighed. “You’re stalling.”

“Yeah—okay, we do have a few things to cover,” Kakashi said, shifting from casual to serious in the blink of an eye. “I guess we’ll go with good news first.”

“That implies there is bad news,” Sasuke commented. He had not felt suspicious coming into the meeting, but that was rapidly changing.

“Isn’t there always?” Kakashi countered.

Sasuke stared back at him.

“Anyway, you’ll be happy to hear that the elders have been removed from their positions of power as of last night—”

“What?!” Naruto shouted, his voice too loud for the room they were in.

Sasuke smacked him across the shoulder. “Will you keep it down?” 

“Sorry—I’m just shocked.” Naruto pouted.

“Yes, I had expected you to be. It was decided rather recently, by our new council, to make the move as soon as possible,” he continued. “Which brings me to the second piece of information I have to share—”

“A new council?” Sasuke cut him off. “How exactly does that solve any of the problems Konoha has had in the past?”

“Maybe if you let me finish, then your questions would be answered before you have to ask them,” Kakashi replied through gritted teeth. “As I was saying, we have formed a new council. A much larger one that represents Konoha as a village. Currently, we have representation from the major clans, the previous Hokage, a few shinobi with expertise in certain fields that do not belong to major clans, two business owners, and a couple non-shinobi affiliated civilians.”

“The hope of this new council is to represent the voices of Konoha and make them apart of the decisions,” Shikamaru added in. “The Hokage’s office will hold regular meetings with them. And this council will frequently vote on matters at hand. We’ve grown out of the need for the Hokage to have the sole power in decision making.”

“Before you rattle off more questions, the council has already agreed to have you on it as the last remaining Uchiha clan member. Yes, despite your pending trial, they think your voice is important. And Naruto, you’ll be joining as the next presumed Hokage,” Kakashi said. “We are working out a way for the village to have a say in who becomes Hokage, but it is abundantly clear they’ve chosen you to pick up the mantle when you’re ready.”

Sasuke glanced at Naruto from the corner of his eye. The blonde was red in the face—from excitement or embarrassment—probably both. Something buried deep in Sasuke’s chest ached at hearing that genin Naruto’s dreams were within his reach.

It was a bittersweet ache—happiness for him, but also devastation that Naruto’s future was not one he fit into.

An ex-missing nin, an alleged war criminal, and a previous Akatsuki member had no place in the Seventh Hokage’s life.

“I know it isn’t the most revolutionary change, but I hope it is a good start,” he continued, looking Sasuke directly in the eyes. “We moved forward with these changes while you were unconscious for you—because of you. I’m doing the best I can, one step at a time, to make Konoha a better place than it ever was to you—or Naruto, for that matter.”

Sasuke clenched his fists in his lap.

“And you know what? It will never be enough,” Kakashi admitted. “There is no erasing what was done to you, Naruto, Itachi, the Uchiha clan, and so many others. But I am hoping to pave a way forward that stops those things from happening again. And this must be done with you two, your insights and assistance, as a crucial centerpiece.”

“Y-yeah, of course,” Naruto was misty-eyed. Sasuke rolled his—a few well-spoken words were all it ever took with him.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was skeptical. “I’ll admit this is not what I was expecting to hear from you, Kakashi. And I would be lying if I said I weren’t appreciative of the work you have been doing. I just struggle to see the next best step to make.”

“Well, then we are in the same spot, but that’s why I hope you accept the offer to be on the council. Your voice is arguably the most important one—at least the one I want there the most,” Kakashi sounded sincere—it made Sasuke’s heart twist.

“What if I want to hear the bad news before I accept?”

Shikamaru sighed. “I told you he would do that.”

Kakashi laughed, but was disheartened. “Fair enough. In order for you to be on the council, they decided there were a few requirements you would need to meet to earn their trust. The first of which being that you, Sasuke, will help around the village as necessary. This might mean assisting with rebuilding or carrying groceries for some old-lady—you get the gist.”

_God._

“Fine.” The agreement flew out of his mouth before he realized.

_Why the fuck did I agree to that? What is wrong with me?_

“Well, it gets more fun from here,” Kakashi started. “They’ve mandated that you—well actually, you _and_ Naruto, start going to therapy.”

“Huh?” Naruto gaped. “Why me?”

“Excuse me?” Sasuke snarled.

“Now before either of you two start,” Tsunade cut in. “You would be surprised to find out just how many of your comrades are in therapy after the war. In the past it was something shinobi looked down upon and many suffered needlessly as a result. But after the end of the war, I mandated all medic-nin start suggesting it to their patients. And well, now we have the largest mental health office in all the Five Great Shinobi Countries. In fact, Suna sends people here for treatment.”

Sasuke knew better than to argue that he didn’t need it, because if anyone were the poster child for therapy it was him. He was not an idiot.

He also knew arguing that he did not want to was childish and would only further prove his need for therapy. But it really was that simple—he didn’t want to. He had no desire to relive the trauma that already replayed vividly in his mind thanks to the Uchiha’s visual prowess.

But was there an alternative? Refuse and be stuck where he was now—no way forward?

No, being stuck was not an option.

“Okay,” he nodded curtly. “I’ll give it a try.”

“I still don’t see why I have to go,” Naruto complained.

Sasuke snorted. “Idiot.”

“There’s one more thing,” Tsunade began. “But I think you two idiots might actually like this one.”

“Really?” Naruto’s blue eyes were sparkling with hope and Sasuke’s stomach did a somersault at the sight.

She laughed fondly at him and again Sasuke could see the importance of their relationship. He idly wondered how many people Naruto had in his life that shared special bonds with him. What other parts of Naruto’s life did he not know about yet?

“You two need to be constantly rehabilitating your new arms. So, my doctor’s orders are that you spar regularly on the training fields. Only hand-to-hand combat though— _no chakra use_. You hear me?”

And Tsunade had been right—Naruto lit up like a firework. He jumped up out of his seat.

“You hear that bastard?” the blonde shouted, turning to face Sasuke. “I’m literally required to beat your ass now!”

“Funny that you think you’re going to win.”

But he smiled up at Naruto nonetheless.

~

There was a chill in the air that made Sasuke shiver when they reached the training grounds later that evening. Sakura was already there waiting for them—she was going to be the supervising medical ninja should anything go wrong.

Sasuke thought it was stupid to have them babysat, but Tsunade insisted that the arms were a new medical development that needed supervision.

He noticed that Ino and Sai were standing next to her.

_How annoying._

Ino he could deal with, seeing as she had grown out of her crush on him and treated him like a normal person.

Sai, on the other hand, filled Sasuke up with an unexplainable rage. Maybe it was because the only clear memory he had of the other man was when he got between him and Naruto back at Orochimaru’s hideout.

That moment felt eons away from him now.

But seeing Sai’s face light up at the sight of Naruto sent a bolt of white-hot lightning to his throat.

_Jealousy?_ Sasuke wondered absent-mindedly. _No, I have no reason to be jealous of this second-rate replacement._

“Sakuraaaa!” Naruto called, running towards her and the others. Sasuke refused to match his pace and coolly walked behind him, hands in his pockets.

“Its about time you two showed up,” Sakura scolded, but hugged Naruto anyway.

“Ino, Sai!” Naruto turned to greet his other two friends as Sasuke finally reached them. When the blonde gave Sai a hug the fire in Sasuke’s chest returned. “Not that I’m unhappy to see you two, but why are you here?”

Sai and Sasuke looked at one another. The other man was smiling at him, but the smile did not reach his eyes. It disturbed Sasuke that he was unable to read Sai. The former Root member was possibly the only person Sasuke had ever encountered that left him unsure of what was a mask and what was reality.

“Ino’s here in case either one of you two get out of control. She’ll mind transfer right into your stupid head and stop you from being reckless,” Sakura explained. “And well…Sai’s just here for fun, I guess?”

“Yes,” he answered, looking away from Sasuke. Sai smiled at Naruto and Sakura—Sasuke noted that this time his smile reached his eyes. “I thought it would be fun to observe. And also, I had not seen you in so long Naruto.”

“It is good to see you again,” Naruto beamed. “I’m glad you came!"

Sakura smacked the back of Naruto’s head. “Can you two get started already? I don’t have all night. And remember—” she cast a stern glance Sasuke’s way. “No use of chakra.”

“Right!” Naruto gave her a thumbs up and bounded out onto the field, Sasuke trailing behind him.

They stood at opposite ends of the field and Naruto immediately got into a fighting stance. It made Sasuke smirk—Naruto had grown up a lot, but he was still prone to rushing into battle.

He kept his hands in his pockets, overtly casual, waiting for Naruto to make a move.

This was the prominent difference between their fighting styles—Naruto rushed to fight, he liked fighting up close and personal, and he was more brute strength than speed. Sasuke on the other hand took his time, preferred keeping distance if he could, and relied on speed.

All these tactics were specifically beneficial to the Uchiha’s observational talents.

Naruto rushed at him, closing the distance quicker than Sasuke had expected, throwing a punch right away. Sasuke easily blocked it with his forearm, deflecting Naruto’s arm away from his body. But the blonde used the momentum to try and land another hit with his other fist.

Sasuke ducked, sweeping at Naruto’s feet with a leg but his opponent reacted in time and jumped away. Before Sasuke could launch his own attack Naruto was back in his space, crowding him and throwing punches one after the other. Sasuke was forced to be on the defensive, alternating between shielding himself with his forearms and hitting Naruto’s arms away with his palms.

He was growing increasingly irritated knowing that Naruto was intentionally picking a fighting style that would keep Sasuke from thinking ahead. Finally, when Naruto landed a kick the broke Sasuke’s arm guard he used the opportunity to back flip several feet away. The distance was his sole chance to regain footing.

“Come on Sasuke! Are you taking this seriously or not?!”

“Not everyone is a headstrong idiot like you.”

Naruto ran at him again, jumping into the air to kick upwards but Sasuke just stepped back. When that didn’t work, the blonde tried for an uppercut punch but Sasuke hopped away.

It amused him to see Naruto begin to get frustrated. He always hated it when Sasuke would play cool and collected during a sparring match. And he hated it even more when Sasuke kept his distance instead of coming back at him.

Finally, Naruto had enough and propelled himself high into the air, coming down with his fist right for Sasuke’s face. But the Uchiha was too fast—he grabbed Naruto’s wrist with one hand and placed his other on his stomach to use the momentum to his advantage—effectively flipping him over. Naruto landed on his back with such force it audibly knocked the breath out of his chest.

Sasuke was just about to land a punch right in the middle of Naruto’s face when Sakura shouted for them to stop.

“That’s enough for tonight you two!” she yelled. Her voice held enough authority to make even Sasuke stop.

His fist hung in the air two inches away from Naruto’s nose.

Wide blue eyes stared up at him, but they weren’t full of fear. In fact, they looked wild with excitement and Naruto was wearing the biggest, most ridiculous grin.

Sasuke could not hold back his laugh. “Idiot.”

“Bastard.”

Sasuke stood and held his hand out to help Naruto up. The intimacy of holding Naruto’s hand in a peaceful, friendly manner made butterflies flutter in his abdomen.

Their gazes lingered on one another longer than necessary, or maybe Sasuke was imagining it.

_I can’t start doing this. I can’t start reading into things that aren’t really there._

Naruto broke the eye contact, turning to shine his beautiful smile on the three observers across the training grounds. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m hungry! Ramen, my treat!”

Ino and Sakura cheered at the news of not having to buy their own food.

“You coming?” Naruto asked, shifting back to Sasuke.

He genuinely considered saying no. He knew the more time he spent with Naruto the more he was setting himself up for heartbreak. Hell, living with Naruto was dangerous enough as is.

But then those blue eyes started wavering with disappointment and Naruto’s bottom lip stuck out a little. Sasuke resented himself for how readily he was to give in to Naruto’s pouts.

Ever determined to hide that fact from his friend, he gave an exasperated sigh and shrugged. “Fine. If you’re going to whine about it so much.”

“Yay!” Naruto threw an arm around Sasuke’s neck and dragged him along to meet the others.

And Sasuke decided it might be a good idea to admit to himself that Naruto would be the death of him, just in a different way than originally anticipated. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, ahhh I'm sorry this update is two days late! I got depressed and well...anyway. I got it done, yay! So, I think most of the stage setting is done, but there still might be some scenes that are 'information heavy' (so to speak). I hope you don't mind these scenes (i.e. the meetings with Kakashi) because they exist to give you (and Sasuke and Naruto) an accurate picture of what situation they're in. But the next chapter will focus more on them and less on the world around them. Get excited, the tension and pining is only going to get worse from here!
> 
> Thank you for all your support. Your comments and encouragement keep me going! See you on Monday for chapter three. ;)


	3. Pushing Buttons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke has his first therapy session and Naruto accompanies him to dinner with Taka; what could possibly go wrong?

Sasuke woke up earlier than Naruto in the mornings, which brought an odd comfort of one thing that had not changed between the two of them. He enjoyed the quietness of early mornings—the sounds of the birds and the rest of the world settling into wakefulness.

But this morning a sense of uneasiness settled into his stomach when he went to get and dressed and stared down at his clothes. The outfit before him was a glaring reminder of Orochimaru—rope obi and coloring reminiscent of his previous teacher’s uniforms.

It made him sick.

He could not bear living in this outfit any longer.

So the second the shops opened for the day—which was still before Naruto woke up—Sasuke left to purchase himself new clothes. He knew Kakashi preferred that he have the blonde escort him around the village, but what did it matter if ANBU were watching his every move?

He left the tailors with several pairs of the same outfit and just a couple unique items for variety. It was not a long trip seeing as Sasuke had gone in knowing exactly what he wanted.

His new outfit consisted of long black pants that were not unlike those the jōnin wore, but not as loose. And his shirt was also black, long-sleeved with a zipper down the front and high collar just like the one from his previous outfit. It had a tight fit, hugging the angles of his body slightly, but not to the degree that it would restrict his movement.

He hoped the long sleeves would keep him from thinking about his new arm. Out of sight, out of mind.

Among the other things he walked away with were black shoes instead of the standard shinobi royal blue, some short-sleeved shirts like the ones he wore when he was younger, and a black cloak.

He intentionally left the Uchiha clan symbol off all his purchases.

When he got back home—well, to Naruto’s apartment—the blonde was somehow still asleep. It was almost noon.

Sasuke shook his head in disappointment and barged into his room without a second thought, unwilling to let Naruto sleep the entire day away.

“Get up idiot,” Sasuke snapped. He paused to take in the surrounding space—it was shockingly clean and organized, but that could be due to the fact Naruto had just come home from the hospital.

The only sign that this was Naruto’s room were the myriad of plants in every corner and their old Team 7 photo on his nightstand. It felt strangely mature and homey.

Another reminder that they were not the same genin from years ago.

Naruto lay asleep on a double bed tucked away in the far corner of the room. The blinds were closed but a sliver of sunlight was streaming through and across Naruto’s face.

_How is he not awake yet?_

Sasuke could sense, even from across the room, that his friend was fine. There were no signs of distress. And if his snores were any indication, he was in a peaceful deep sleep.

Perhaps Sasuke felt a pang of jealousy at that—he could never sleep that well. Or this long. The red tinged memories always crept into his dreams and startled him awake.

He crossed the room to Naruto’s bed and kicked at his legs. “It is almost noon.”

Naruto grumbled, shielding his face with the back of his arm, and began squirming about.

“Seriously, get up.” The blonde stirred and grumbled but finally sat up.

“Fine, fine, bastard,” he whined. “Today is my first day where I have nothing planned. And you’ve ruined it.”

Sasuke snorted. “I’m not sorry. Unlike you, I have to go help at one of the construction sites.”

The realization fell across Naruto’s face, regret reflecting in his eyes. “Oh right.”

“It’s fine. I would rather have something to preoccupy my time than just sit around anyway,” Sasuke replied, waving at hand at Naruto before turning to leave.

And then full consciousness seemed to hit the blonde, who was often slow on the uptake, as he noticed Sasuke’s new wardrobe.

“Wait! You have new clothes,” Naruto shouted, a loud thud coming from him jumping out of bed and getting tangled in his blankets. Sasuke turned and a chuckle escaped at the sight of Naruto flat on the floor, a heap of bedding and sleepiness.

“Yes, amazing what you miss when you sleep the entire morning away,” Sasuke quipped.

He watched as Naruto rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, blinking comically as he took in Sasuke’s new wardrobe. His keen eyes noticed a red flush spreading on Naruto’s cheeks, but there could be no other explanation besides the humiliation he must be feeling after falling on his face. A miniscule part tucked away in the back of his psyche hoped for something else, but he did not dare touch that thought. He learned long ago to leave those desires alone.

Naruto huffed, crossing his arms over his chest, and pouting as he looked away. His face remained scarlet. “Well, you coulda told me. I could have gone with you or something.”

“Why would I want you to go with me? Have you seen your wardrobe choices?” Sasuke teased. “What, are you unhappy with my purchases?”

The blonde scurried to his feet, waving his arms back and forth apologetically. “No, no! That’s not what I meant, bastard. You look—they uh, they’re great.”

Sasuke paused, assessing the sight before him. For as long as he could remember he struggled with stopping himself from staring at Naruto. Could anyone blame him? His friend was incandescent—a source of joy that blew away even the gloomiest clouds. It was Naruto’s true superpower—how his light could outshine any darkness.

That was an experience Sasuke knew firsthand.

“I have to get going,” Sasuke said, breaking himself out of his own stupor. Thankfully, he seemed to announce his departure before Naruto caught on to his blatant staring.

_Always slow on the uptake. Or maybe he noticed and would rather not make things awkward now that we live together…_ Sasuke frowned. He left the apartment in a hurry before his roommate could say anything else.

~

Sasuke found that he did not mind the arduous labor of helping at the construction site. It was repetitious and kept his mind focused on something specific. He was able to entirely immerse himself in the work, successfully escaping his mind’s darkest recesses for hours on end.

The other workers did not appear bothered by his presence. If they were, they were proficient at hiding it. No one was particularly kind to him either, but neutral was better than he had expected.

His body was relieved to experience hard work and movement after spending such a long period of time in a hospital bed. The sweat was oddly satisfying.

“Since you got here, our productivity has damn near tripled,” one worker commented as Sasuke walked by with an armful of supplies.

Sure, even Sasuke could admit it was a welcome feeling to know he was being helpful. To know that for the first time in years how he was spending his time had a useful effect on the world. Perhaps he could count this towards the endless amount of penance he owed the universe.

His time at the construction site flew by, the sun’s position in the sky informing him that it was time to head to his first therapy session. For once Sasuke wished he were not constantly aware of his surroundings. A simpler minded man could easily have missed the time and worked too late.

But alas, his eyes seemed to catch the details he wanted to escape.

The therapist’s office was in a wing adjacent to the larger Konoha hospital. It was a small room, painted beige and filled with plants. Achieving a safe and comforting tone was what it was going for, but Sasuke remained unaffected. The idea of talking about the intimate details of his personhood felt suffocating no matter how the room was styled.

A woman sat across from him, in a chair unlike the couch he was on, notebook in hand. She seemed nice enough—long brown hair pulled into a braid that draped over her shoulder and soft green eyes. Attraction towards women was unfamiliar to Sasuke, but he could still objectively recognize when a woman was beautiful.

“Sasuke, I’m Dr. Watanabe, but you can just call me Yumi.”

“Okay.”

“We could start with introductory information, but I have a feeling you’re not interested in that,” Yumi continued, tilting her head to the side.

“Why bother? You have everything you need to know about me in that little book of yours,” he countered.

She nodded. “Ah yes, well, information about you and your life story written down on paper is not human. Those are words on a page, which often differ severely from the reality of what exists inside the flesh and blood person it is all about.”

Sasuke let the silence drag out between them, uninterested in giving her a reply to that comment. He had made up his mind that if he had nothing to say he would keep quiet, instead of giving her more fodder for her notes about how aggressive he was.

“How about we discuss why you don’t want to be here, hm?”

A slight pang of guilt shot through him—she was trying. This was her job, after all. And it sure as hell was not her fault that she got assigned Sasuke-fucking-Uchiha. But not even that guilt was strong enough to sway him.

“I don’t need to discuss my trauma.”

“You don’t think you need therapy?”

He laughed, hollow and cruel. “I am not ignorant. I know how childhood trauma fundamentally changes who a person is. How trauma in general does that. And I’m fully aware that I am the perfect candidate for therapy.”

Yumi hummed, nodding. “Then why don’t you want to be here if you know you should be?”

“Because I relive my trauma constantly. My eyes…I relive it in nightmares every night. Why bother bringing it into wakefulness when that is the only time I can try to escape it all?”

Sasuke felt small under her gaze. He regretted admitting that much in their first session but lying was pointless. No matter what he did it was going to signal something to her. And the last thing he needed to do was keep track of hundreds of lies only to end up tangled in their web.

Moving forward he wanted to make honesty a priority, even though it felt painful and disgusting.

“Have you ever considered,” she began, taking a thoughtful pause before continuing, “That these memories, these traumatic events, haunt your dreams because you refuse to address them when you are awake?”

A chord within him was struck and Sasuke went rigid at the unforeseen revelation.

_But wasn’t that the entire point of therapy? Revelations you never asked for._ He thought grimly.

“I also do not like the unpredictable,” Sasuke admitted. “And therapy is entirely unpredictable. There is no way I can predict what you will say to me, due to your years of training and the walls you have professionally put up. That combined with my emotional incompetence leaves me vulnerable to questions like the one you just asked.”

“Your kekkei genkai has spoiled you, Sasuke,” she laughed. “An entire lifetime being able to see the things that other people can’t. It makes sense that when there are things you cannot see you would rather flee than fight it head on. Unfortunately, matters of the heart are often undetectable to the eye—even those from the Uchiha clan.”

He mulled over her words, opting for silence as his gaze flitted to the ground. Somehow looking her in the eyes was increasingly difficult the longer the session went on. A crushing weight began to settle itself on his chest and her words hung in the air.

“Sasuke, I would first ask you shed yourself of the idea you are emotionally incompetent. And know anything you may or may not feel is okay. I think your primary problem is a false belief that you’re meant to do things on your own. You don’t have to relive those horrible things alone when you process them, that’s what I am here for. They will not sweep you away, because I will be here to ground you,” Yumi explained.

If only her words supplied the comfort they were meant to bring. Instead, his chest seized under the weight of those implications and his lungs froze.

“So you’re meant to dissect me and expect me to smile up at you from under the knife? The least I can do with what is left of my life is to do things alone. Alone means no one else gets hurt if anything goes wrong. Alone means only I face the repercussions of my choices,” he snapped, breathless. The panic raging wild inside of him.

Yumi leaned forward, resting elbows on her knees while she locked eyes with Sasuke. He knew the anxiety was plastered across his face, but by this point his mind had lost the faculties to care.

“Think back to the best things you have accomplished in life—the ones you are truly proud of. Were they all done alone?” she posed the question and it began reeling him in. Something in her voice had shifted and it grabbed hold of him. “Tell me one thing you did with someone else that you’re proud of.”

The response was instinctual—a reflex.

“Naruto and I…we ended the Infinite Tsukuyomi together. It was impossible to do alone, for either of us, it had to be together,” he replied. Slowly his breath returned to him alongside images of Naruto’s smile, their hands pressed together to form the rat hand seal. The pressure on his chest receded after several moments passed.

“And that is arguably the most important thing to have happened in shinobi history, Sasuke,” she said. “It was something you did with your friend. You saved the world and for once a cliché sentence like that is not an exaggeration.”

Sasuke scoffed. “Whatever.”

Yumi sat back in her chair and glanced over at the clock hanging across the room. “Our session is almost over. So, I’m sending you away with homework before I see you again in three days—”

“Three days? Aren’t these meant to be weekly?”

“You have been…given unique accommodations, Sasuke. I’m sorry, but I’m just following orders.”

He grimaced as an image of Kakashi’s obnoxious smiling face flashed across his mind. If he wanted to have any place on the new council or any chance at true freedom, he knew he would have to play by the rules.

_And maybe this was not a complete waste of time. It could have been worse._

“Anyway, before I see you again in three days, I want you to ask someone to help you with something.” Yumi started laughing at the utter disgust that formed on Sasuke’s face. “That look is precisely why I’m assigning you this. It can be anything. Ask someone to carry something for you, to help you make dinner—anything. But I’ll expect a report out on how it went and we both know I’ll be able to tell if you’re lying.”

“Will you?” Sasuke responded, rushing out the door right as the clock marked the end of their session.

~

“Sasukeeee,” Naruto whined, walking at a leisurely pace with his hands behind his head. He frowned at the back of Sasuke’s head—the bastard always had to be in a hurry no matter where they were going.

“What?”

Naruto let himself hang back a little longer, shamelessly taking in the sight of Sasuke in his new clothes. He noticed that these ones had a tighter fit than any of his previous outfit choices.

_They make him look grown up, but in a good way,_ Naruto mused.

There was the notable lack of an Uchiha symbol, but he did not want to bring it up. Any explanations that Sasuke could potentially give would only be painful for them both.

_Black is a really good color on him._

His eyes gradually fell to watch Sasuke’s butt as he walked. If he got caught staring, could anyone blame him? Sasuke’s new pants fit him unlike any other pair he had ever worn—they revealed details of his body that Naruto never noticed before. Sasuke was objectively attractive, everyone in the village knew that. That’s all this was, right?

But his gaze lingered, on and on.

_Ah shit, am I checking Sasuke out?_ He panicked, forcing himself to stare at the back of Sasuke’s head.

Blood rushed to his cheeks, making his face burn. He needed to get out of his head and into the present moment.

“Why do you have to go so fast?” he complained, stuffing his hands in his pockets, and scurrying to walk side-by-side with him. This way he did not have the option to stare at Sasuke’s lower body. “And why _exactly_ do we have to go here in the first place?”

They were almost to the outskirts of Konoha, but still within the range of new buildings. Less people lived this far out as construction had not fully reached this end of the perimeter. The only light that illuminated their surroundings was what remained of the sunset. It was strangely tranquil for Konoha—a mixture of small residential buildings and empty spaces that had become overgrown with grass and weeds.

“Because I have not seen them since the war and I have questions,” Sasuke spat. “You did not have to come with me if you were going to complain the entire time.”

“Oh, so you would rather the ANBU be the ones following you on your visit to your old Taka teammates?” Naruto teased, elbowing Sasuke in the ribs. The raven-haired man elbowed him back with more force, causing Naruto to stumble. “Hey!”

Sasuke smirked, not once looking over at his companion.

“I’m just saying, you’re actually lucky I offered to come with you. I’m way less creepy than ANBU lurking in the shadows,” he whispered dramatically, leaning over Sasuke’s shoulder for added effect.

When his joking around got no response from Sasuke, Naruto sighed and went back to walking at his side in silence. He knew that Sasuke had therapy earlier that evening. Sasuke had come home in an unusually bad mood and kept to himself until suddenly announcing his intention on visiting Taka.

Naruto knew better than to pry about his therapy session, so instead he offered to join him. Sasuke had been reluctant on accepting, but Naruto was nothing if persistent.

Besides, he was morbidly curious to get to know the individuals Sasuke had trusted enough to form a new team. He vaguely knew Karin after they saved her from death at Sasuke’s hands, but she had put walls up and Naruto had other things on his mind.

They came upon a medium sized home with an expansive garden and porch out front. The porch was lit with several lanterns that swung in the evening breeze. It seemed like a peaceful place to live—Naruto was almost jealous of the serene environment. It was a stark contrast to the constant hum of the city center that surrounded his apartment.

Sasuke knocked on the door and seconds later it slid open to reveal a large man with spiky orange hair. Not only were his muscles enormous, but he towered over Sasuke in height too. 

“Jūgo,” Sasuke greeted and the man smiled softly down at Sasuke. When Jūgo’s attention turned towards Naruto, Sasuke added, “This is Naruto. He decided he was coming with me.”

“We expected that,” another voice yelled from inside.

Jūgo stepped aside and let them in. The home was lightly furnished and clean, but also clearly lived in. It reminded him of the pictures he had seen of Sasuke’s childhood home.

A strange looking man with sharp teeth and piercing purple eyes threw his arms around Sasuke’s shoulders. Naruto’s mouth hung open at the scene unfolding before him, because despite his assumptions Sasuke did not lash out.

_In fact, he doesn’t seem bothered at all,_ Naruto thought frustratedly. _If I did that Sasuke would send me flying across the room!_

An unfamiliar sensation stirred in Naruto’s stomach—he did not have a name for it, but it was unpleasant.

“Suigetsu,” Sasuke sighed. “Please get off of me.”

The man— _Suigetsu, apparently_ —did not remove himself from Sasuke. Instead, he hung on tighter and leered at Naruto with mischievous smirk plastered on his stupid face.

“So that’s Naruto, eh, Sasuke?” Suigetsu teased.

Naruto clenched his fists as Suigetsu’s mocking tone registered in his ears.

_I have no idea who the fuck this guy thinks he is, but he’s already pissing me off._

That unfamiliar feeling grew in Naruto’s stomach and swirled into one he knew well—the fire of anger. And Sasuke must have caught on, or registered it from the peculiar bond they shared, because he shrugged Suigetsu off his body.

“Don’t be an idiot, we just got here,” Sasuke scolded. “Naruto, this is Suigetsu.”

“Nice to meet you finally!” Suigetsu exclaimed as he moved and threw his arm around Naruto’s shoulders this time. He pulled the blonde in close, either unaware of the anger boiling in him or choosing to ignore it. “Sasuke has talked soooo much about you. God it was exhausting.”

With that comment the anger dissipated.

_What did he just say?_

“Huh?” Naruto responded, dumbfounded.

“Enough of your games Suigetsu,” Sasuke growled. He walked over and pried his Taka teammate off Naruto, shoving him away for extra measure.

“You never let me have any fun,” the sharklike man groaned, but he relented.

“Suigetsu get your ass back in the kitchen and help me finish dinner!!!” Karin’s familiar voice echoed throughout the entire home. Her fiery red hair poked out from the kitchen and the sight of Sasuke instantly sent her from furious to flustered. “S-sasuke!”

“I’m surprised you didn’t sense him, idiot,” Suigetsu grumbled, pushing past her, and disappearing into the kitchen.

“I was a little busy!” she screamed. “Oh Naruto, you’re here too. No wonder Sasuke’s not radiating despair.”

Naruto felt himself reeling with the dynamics in the room and his eyes were constantly shifting from person to person. These people were total strangers to him—a situation that under normal circumstances Naruto would thrive in. He loved meeting new people and being the center of attention.

But in this house Naruto was an outsider among individuals that shared their own special bond with Sasuke. These were three people Sasuke had trusted with his life during the same period he was actively pushing Naruto away.

Despite a life committed to humanizing everyone and seeing the good in the worst of people, Naruto, for the first time, felt a resistance build inside of him.

_Maybe this is what Sakura meant when she explained resentment to me._

Taka had gotten to shield Sasuke when he was broken—walk by his side—and see him through some of the most traumatic moments of his life. A hurricane of emotions wreaked havoc in Naruto’s body—knocking the air out of his lungs and squeezing the life out of his heart.

Bitterness rose to his throat like a vicious green bile, threatening to spill out and incinerate everything it touched.

“Naruto,” Sasuke said, gingerly placing a hand on his shoulder. His touch absorbed every lingering bit of negativity within Naruto.

He swallowed, steadying himself before looking Sasuke in the eyes. “Sorry.”

“It goes both ways,” Sasuke responded, keeping his voice low and the conversation between the two of them. “The bond. I can feel your distress just as you feel mine.”

“Sorry,” Naruto muttered again. He cast his eyes to the ground, intently watching his foot draw invisible circles on the floor.

Sasuke gave his shoulder a squeeze before removing himself from Naruto’s personal space altogether. That was when Naruto registered Sasuke and the others moving to sit around a kitchen table, Karin and Suigetsu bringing out plates of food before they took their seats.

Naruto sat down next to Sasuke, eyeing the dinner right as his stomach growled audibly enough for the others to hear. He let out an awkward laugh.

“I uh, haven’t eaten all day, I don’t think,” he admitted.

He shrunk under the glare Sasuke shot him—he knew that later he would be scolded for neglecting himself. Ever since they were genin Sasuke tended to be a mother hen.

They ate in companionable silence for awhile before Sasuke decided to begin his inquiry.

“Enough of the niceties,” he started. “Why have you all decided to stay in Konoha?”

“Why not?” Suigetsu countered, wagging a fork in Sasuke’s face.

“Because you three, of all people, know what Konoha has done. You were at my side as I made my way through discovering the atrocities this village has committed,” he snapped.

Naruto knew this was not his time to speak but hearing Sasuke still speak of Konoha with vitriol hurt him. He wanted to scream, defend the village and the people here, but he kept it in. The last thing Sasuke needed in this moment was for Naruto to argue.

_Besides, it’s not like he is totally wrong. I know what they’ve done, too._

“Well, you’re here,” Karin countered. She took a bite of food and glanced down at her plate before working up the courage to look at Sasuke again. “They offered us free accommodations. The new Hokage has been incredibly kind to us.”

“Do you not intend to stay here?” Jūgo inquired. He was by far the calmest out of the group, his voice even and practically soothing to the ears. Every movement and word had intention behind it.

Sasuke huffed, his body visibly tensing next to Naruto.

_Does Sasuke plan to leave once he can? That question seems to have bothered him._ Naruto’s heart sank. Of course Sasuke would flee Konoha once he could—how could he be so foolish? Why did he think that in settling things between the two of them would mean Sasuke would stay?

“I am not sure yet,” Sasuke answered. “It depends on how things play out between now and when I would be able to leave. I have contingency plans for every possible outcome.”

Suigetsu barked out laughter and dropped his fork on his plate. “Yeah ‘course you do. So, just like that huh? Blondie chases you for years, you rip each other’s arms off, and you still are going to leave him behind?”

A tether in Naruto snapped. “Hey, you don’t get to be pissed off on my behalf. I don’t even know you!”

But the venom in Naruto’s voice did not deter Suigetsu, who seemed intent on not backing down. He gave a toothy smirk and leaned forward.

“Oh, I hit a sore spot huh? But hey, if you’re not gonna call Sasuke out on it, someone should.”

“Stop Suigetsu! You’re so annoying!” Karin screamed, slapping the back of his head before comically switching back to her calm demeanor.

Jūgo let out an elongated sigh. “Please, both of you. You’re upsetting Sasuke. Behave.”

Out of the corner of his eye Naruto could tell that his friend had been wounded by Suigetsu’s words. Sensing the depth of Sasuke’s feelings, being able to see beyond the mask that he kept up, still felt new. Naruto had been able to see past that façade for awhile now, but since their final battle an unnamed thing shifted between them.

It still sent Naruto reeling— _I can kinda feel the pain too._

His own words to Sasuke echoed in his mind. Before that moment he never had the words to describe the feeling and ever since he identified it—told Sasuke about it—the awareness was unavoidable.

And as he sat here, Suigetsu goading them into an argument, Naruto tangibly felt the distress within Sasuke in his own chest. Which only fed the fire of his own anger towards Suigetsu.

“Sorry,” Suigetsu grumbled. “I guess we’re all just gonna pretend Sasuke didn’t whine about Naruto for months on end, then.”

“Suigetsu.”

Naruto knew by the look on Karin’s face, and her extraordinary sensory capabilities, that she also sensed the deadly shift in Sasuke’s energy. The animosity rolled off Sasuke in waves, washing over Naruto and making him feel as if he were drowning in it. He placed a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder, just as the other man had done to him earlier.

“Perhaps we should call it an evening,” Jūgo said.

“Good idea,” Naruto replied, flashing everyone a weary smile.

Sasuke’s energy appeared to ease under Naruto’s touch. They left without further comment, the nighttime breeze providing much needed relief after the tense dinner.

The crescent moon hung high in the indigo sky above them and the stars were vibrant this far out. Naruto continued ahead while gawking at the constellations above, trusting Sasuke to stop him from running into anything.

Suigetsu’s comments replayed for Naruto like a broken record.

_What did any of those even mean? Did Sasuke actually talk about me a lot or was that guy lying to try and upset me instead?_

Naruto grimaced—anyone could guess that it would ignite some degree of joy in Naruto to know Sasuke had thought about him back then, too. That could be the angle that Suigetsu was going for.

_Especially since my jealousy was stupidly obvious when we first arrived…_

His heart dropped.

_Oh, fuck. Jealousy._

“Hey, Sasuke, are you okay?” he blurted out, eyes glued to the sky, attempting to run away from the thoughts rising to the surface.

“Just leave it alone for now, idiot.”

He dropped it, opting to focus on counting the stars as a distraction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your love and support. Honestly, your encouraging comments and amazing reactions fuel me. Life has been hard, but I am continuously excited to write this story. Naruto and Sasuke mean the world to me and I hope you can see that in how I am deciding to tell their stories. 
> 
> The next chapter will be a fun one. Just you wait and see.... ;)


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